


Quantum Transition

by Alex_Danko



Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: F/F, Machiavellian Max, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-28
Updated: 2017-12-28
Packaged: 2019-02-23 04:10:16
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,654
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13182087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Alex_Danko/pseuds/Alex_Danko
Summary: According to Max Tegmark, there are alternative universes with different physical constants. Where not the planets revolve around the suns, but vice versa. According to Max Caulfield, her universe is the one in which dooming a whole city to death doesn't cause a single bit of regret.





	Quantum Transition

**Author's Note:**

> So, this is in fact a translation of my work from Russian, posted on ficbook. I didn't mark it as a translation 'cause the original work is mine as well. (https://ficbook.net/readfic/6019717) I'm pretty new to publishing in English, so I would highly appreciate you pointing out mistakes that I make and giving constructive criticism. I already feel like this is going to be very interesting and unique expierence for me. And, of course, I hope that you enjoy reading this.

Quantum Transition.

 

Chapter 1. Phase Shift

_October 11th, 2013._

_The exact time is unknown_

_Arcadia Bay._

“No, Max… You’re the only one who can.”

 

My name is Max Caulfield, and right now, I’m facing a Choice. A Choice between the life of my best friend and a whole city. Either Chloe Price, or Arcadia Bay, respectively.

 

How did it all come to this?

 

Five days ago, I got the ability to return to the past. I can rewind time like a film, but not for too long a time, no longer than half an hour. Or, go back a much longer period, up to several years, using a photo. If I look at a photo at a certain angle, I get the opportunity to jump through it at the moment it was made.

 

Once, with the help of this I went back for five years and saved Chloe's father, William Price, from the death. However, the cost for saving his life was Chloe’s health - in a new timeline, she got in a car accident and became paralyzed. I had to go back five years ago once more and let William die.

 

Many things happened this week - for example, we found the corpse of Rachel Amber, Chloe's new best friend. During those five years, while I was living in another city, Rachel helped Chloe deal with the death of her father and parting with her last best friend, who, by the way, is me. I did not see her face - Chloe stopped digging, once she saw that the body is dressed in Rachel's clothes - but from the photos, I know that Rachel was that stunningly beautiful. Was there only friendship between the two?

 

But, now is not the time to think about it.

 

The fact that I used my strength too much, changing destiny countless times (in particular, trying to escape from Jefferson - a psycho-teacher who is guilty of the death of Rachel, Nathan and Victoria, and the God knows how many more people), caused unrest in the time-space. Warren said that this is the "butterfly effect".

 

And now a huge tornado was approaching the city, that will obliterate everything, passing along it. And all responsibility for the storm lies entirely with me.

Chloe realized: in order for this whole nightmare to disappear, you just need to make sure that my abilities do not appear in the first place. That is, to go back at the moment when they were manifested, and stop committing acts that caused the emergence of forces to travel in time.

 

And let Chloe die. Because saving her life was the trigger of my abilities appearing.

 

This will erase any time anomalies and a tornado will not appear. Arcadia Bay will be saved.

 

Only Chloe will be dead.

 

Now I'm standing in front of her, a giant storm raging to my left, and in my hands is a photo of a blue butterfly that I took a couple of minutes before I first travelled in time. We are both crying, but Chloe's eyes are filled with determination. And mine, probably, with fear and despair.

 

I have to choose one of the two.

 

Ignore Chloe's desire and do not save the city, dooming thousands of people to a terrible death. Including Chloe’s mom and stepfather, as well as many of our friends.

 

Or save them all. Letting Chloe die.

 

So here it is. Crucial moment. Two ways, that is so simple. I would like to hope for the help of some third force. Some kind of a Deus Ex Machina. But I cannot believe all this ever since... It does not matter now.

 

What does is that we have such abstract scales here. On one side of them - Chloe, on the other - Arcadia Bay. And I need to…

 

I felt something strange. Something like clicks.

 

In my head. Clicks of the big gears that are in place, which here and there broke unnecessary smaller gears that are less effective for the whole mechanism. As if my brain was a children's building sets, which was reassembled and strengthened. My consciousness, my personality was fragmented, and then restored. And like nothing has changed. I, kind of like, just got myself together, but still...

 

Wait.

 

Are you serious?

 

I'm offered a Choice between Chloe... and Arcadia Bay? I did not even... think about it. I did not fully understand the reality of the circumstances. So that’s how it is.

 

Lol.

 

Ok.

 

I would totally earn a medal if there was the world's fastest photo ripping contest.

 

 

 

Something went wrong. There was a feeling that I was doing something a little, quite a bit wrongly. When Chloe spoke, I understood (or not, rather **felt** ) that she had to say something different. I got out of the script.

 

“Max ... But Joyce, and ... and everyone else ... Why?..”

 

The sense of wrongness has disappeared, but I have not forgotten about it. And I never will. This means that I’ve played by my own rules. This omniscient, all-seeing being (essence? phenomenon? mechanism? well, something) that stands behind my forces and this storm for some reason could not even suggest that I simply _don’t care_ about anyone except Chloe.

 

Yeah.

 

It's a pity that I don’t _give a fuck_ , huh?

 

Okay, Max, stop yelling at the supernatural, and start paying attention to real problems. Chloe. I just "killed" all her friends, her mother and stepfather. Aye, yes I did, damn. But there was no choice, no matter how ironic it sounds. For me it was not a Choice at all.

 

“Chloe... I couldn’t choose your death. Just couldn’t,” I tried to talk as calmly and smoothly as possible, but fatigue, mental and physical, made me stammer and wheeze. “No matter the consequences.”

 

“But...” tears came to her eyes. She is beginning to realize that she had lost all her loved ones. Except me, of course. I need to distract her.

 

"Didn’t you say that you trust me? That this choice is for me to make?” I started quietly, but my voice was raising with every word. My self-control was only enough to not tell her about the nightmare, about Jefferson, about others Max, about what I did yes about what I did and the bad thing I did Max you should’ve not done that you will not be a good girl anymore Max Max how are things in hell wanna know

 

I forced myself to pull myself together and continued:

 

“I feel sorry about everyone (a lie). Sorry about Arcadia Bay (a lie). I'm not sure that I can ever forgive myself for this (a lie),” I sighed, gathered my thoughts and began to tell the truth. The truth is somewhat easier to tell. “But I chose you. I think Joyce and David would also want me choosing you. Now you are indebted to all these people. You now have a duty – a duty to live a long decent life. This will be right.”

 

I'm not sure if this actually will be right, but I don’t care. The main thing is for Chloe to be okay. Number one priority.

 

She stood for a while, looking at me in silence. For a few seconds, only sadness, suffering and fear were displayed on her (criminally attractive!) face. But then she shook her head violently and determination appeared in her gaze. She came to me and hugged me.

 

“Fine,” I let out a sigh of relief. Not too obvious, I hope. Chloe pressed her face to my hair, then lifted her head. “Look at this fricking tornado. And why am so I sure that after destroying Arcadia Bay it will calm down?”

 

“For the same reason why you were sure that your death would save the city,” I answered, trying not to sound too hysterical. “It's all because of this supernatural crap that's going on in Arcadia Bay. But,” I pulled back and looked into Chloe's wide-open eyes. “I'm even grateful to this crap.”

 

Chloe looked at me blankly.

 

“I'm grateful because,” I began to explain, “that, due to it, even if many people will die... Without its intervention, I would’ve not saved you, that time, on Monday.”

 

The shadow of a smile for a moment appeared on her face. She opened her mouth to say something, but suddenly her eyes focused on what was happening behind my back. Instead of what she originally wanted to say, the punk said:

 

“It's begun.”

 

I turned around and involuntarily shivered. The tornado reached the shore and began to destroy the city. The first few houses, cars and trees, along with countless small indistinguishable things, have already disappeared into the depths of the tornado. For a second, it seemed to me that I heard a distant scream.

 

Perhaps, I slightly embellished my feelings, saying that I do not really care about the population of Arcadia Bay. I sympathized a few people in this city, even considered a couple of them as an option for the relationship. Before reuniting with Chloe, of course. So, perhaps, I'm not very proud of such an act as the destruction of a whole city. Although all this loses value when I remember for the sake of what (more precisely, for whom) I did it.

 

So forgive me, guys, but I've got the love of my life here, you know. In another situation, I would not have even thought of making you all leveled to the ground, trust me. So do not be offended!

 

Although, there will be nobody to take offense by the morning.

 

“Let's get out of here. I want to hide somewhere where it's warm and quiet. And wait out all this horror,” I said to Chloe without looking at her.

 

“Yeah,” a short pause. “Let's go get cover in the car.”

 

 

 

Chloe slept, laying her head on my lap and wrapping her arms around it. She slept uneasily, but not so much that I thought it is necessary to wake her up. I tenderly removed the hair from the punk's forehead, neatly, so as not to disturb her sleep.

 

I should sleep, but I know that I won’t be able to, not immediately. Firstly, because a lot still needs to be considered and planned. Secondly, I'm afraid to return to that nightmare.

 

Oh, did I mess things up in it.

 

_11? OctBBBBRbr 20!3_

_26:71_

_Nightmare._

“Who… Who are you?” I asked cautiously.

 

“Holy shit, are you cereal? I’m you, dumbass. Or I’m one of many Maxes you left behind…”

 

So that’s how it is. I'm not sure that this is an absolute truth, because only the surrealism of everything that happened in the last couple of hours already makes me doubt. However, the veracity of the fact expressed by Max does not matter to me.

 

“Cool. Do you know how to get out of here?”

 

Max's eyes widened in amazement.

 

“That's it? You’re not even going to ask what happens to Maxes that you abandoned, are you?”

 

“Why should I?” I shrugged. “You see, if everything is really the way you are saying, then ... All this is basically like a coin toss. Transferred to the multiverse theory*. Like in that horror game, "SOMA". With a 50% chance, you go back to the past and then back to the present, and with the same chance, you are left with nothing. In a very bad situation. And for those versions of me,” I leaned close to Max's face and spoke a little quieter. ”Who tried to escape from Jefferson through the photo and failed this was the maximally bad fucking situation. Um, the pun is not intended, I swear.”

 

Another me recoiled and stared even wilder at me. I straightened up again and folded my arms across my chest.

 

“So, it just means that I won each one of those coin tosses. I always got tails, so to speak. And why should I care about the fate of losers who have remained in the worlds, in which I do not intend to return? All of them should simply accept their defeat and shut their faces.”

 

The expression of the other Max's face changed from the amused to the maliciously mocking.

 

“You're just sick in the head, aren’t you? Perhaps, you aren’t actually me. Normal Max would never have thought like that, she's not a selfish scum like you. Always ready to help and so on. Apparently, you’re some kind of a dark version of us. Or just another time anomaly. The difference between the initial phases of two variables... Or no! It’s not that, it’s because... All this shit that happened to us made you completely fucked up! And now you're Max-nihilist, Max-cynic, Max-psycho, Max-...”

 

“Listen here, Max-go-fuck-yourself. I'm not sick,” I began to lose patience. “I am what I am, and if you want to tell me that recent events have influenced me in any way, then perhaps only by strengthening and reinforcing,” Perhaps, it's you who is abnormal, pestering with their moral sermons and complaints about fate. I would gladly continue to insult you for the rest of the day, but sorry, Chloe is waiting for me. So how do you get out of here?”

 

The anger on the other Max's face subsided a little, giving way to a sly grin.

 

“Ah, Chloe... You know, initially I wanted to question her figure, make you look at her from a different angle, but... Not in this case. I'd better ask you something,” She got up and took the fork from the table in her hand, then approached me so close that our noses were almost touching. “Do you really think that you deserve your Chloe? Why you, and not all those Maxes, in whose worlds Chloe is dead, should be with her? What did you do to deserve it? After all, we all have the same right to her as you.”

 

I thought a little, not looking away from the fork in her hand. Then looked at Max and answered, trying to sound as calm and indifferent as possible:

 

“I'm not sure if I'm worthy of Chloe or not. And I do not know if you all have the right to her or not (although I know for sure that legally such a right can’t exist). But what I’m absolutely sure in is that I won’t let anyone else be with her. Even if this other person is, technically, me.”

 

“You won’t let?" Max laughed hysterically. “Oh, who the... Damn, that was a good one…” She caught her breath, smiled widely and screamed:

 

“Who the hell is going to ask your permission?!!”

 

Then she lifted her arm to stab me with a fork.

 

However, my own hands were already moving fast towards her palm. They hit its bottom before Max redirected the fork to attack me, and enhanced and continued its ascent. Then they pressed themselves to the edge of the palm, slightly changing the force vector, forcing the fork, still clamped in the palm of another Max, to stab right into the neck at the level of the left collarbone. Another Max froze, amazed, and looked down, trying to see what was happening.

 

“Ask or don’t, I'll hang anyone who encroaches on his own guts. For Chloe's sake,” I pressed the fork as hard as I could. It went deeper, the blood splashed. Max gave a plaintive wheeze, trying to close the wound with the other hand. I walked away and rubbed my trembling hands against each other, trying not to think about anything.

 

Then someone touched me by the shoulder.

 

Chloe?

 

Yet another Max was standing there. And more Maxes behind her. And more. Dozens.

 

“SCREW YOU, YOU DAMN PSYCHO!!!” and she struck me with her forehead in the nose. I backed down, but kept the balance and did not fall. All other Maxes came and surrounded me. “HOW DO YOU LIKE THAT, HUH?!! YOU FUCKING BITCH!!!”

 

They all started to beat, bite, scratch and push me. Immediately, blood from many abrasions, scratches and other injuries flooded my eyes. I tried to answer them in blind, helpless fury, but all my blows only hit the air. The cries were growing stronger, I was exhausted and just endured the beatings, clenching my teeth and burning inside from anger.

 

Then one particularly strong push followed, actually knocking me down. Remembering that you can never be in a lying position during a fight, I instantly got up and again prepared to defend myself.

 

No one.

 

The blood disappeared, as well as the injuries, as well as “Two Whales”.

 

As well as the abandoned Maxes.

 

I walked along the road, where I was shown memories of Chloe and me that we made during this week.

 

 

_October 12th, 2013_

_06:35_

_Arcadia Bay._

This time I slept soundly, without dreams (and, hence, without nightmares). When I woke up, Chloe was already driving away form the hill on which a lighthouse is… was. A direct hit by a small boat ended pitifully for the old guy, who lit the way for the ships, probably, for more than a hundred years. If not for more.

 

We drove into the town.

 

As soon as the view of the residential streets opened before us, Chloe stopped the car and put it on the handbrake, examining the consequences of the catastrophe with a slightly open mouth.

 

If I expected to see something similar to the picture before our eyes, then for Chloe it was a shock. Apparently, unlike me, she did not realize how categorical the Choice was. It was assumed that on the other side of the scales is the entire population of Arcadia Bay, no more, no less. Or, at least, all those close to Chloe. Otherwise, what's the fun, right? You a shitty supernatural motherf... Oh well, what's the use of plaguing myself now?

 

Let’s concentrate on more pressing issues.

 

“How… are you?” I asked timidly.

 

Chloe seemed to come out of trance.

 

“Huh?.. Yeah, I’m okay.”

 

I frowned and started to almost drill her with my gaze. Punk shifted a little on the seat, then gave up. Taking a deep breath, she took the pickup off the handbrake, and the car rolled past the destroyed buildings, while Chloe continued to talk.

 

“Well, yeah, not quite okay. Well, as okay as it is possible in current situation, probably. Like, I understand that such things are not forgotten easily and it takes a lot of time, but... Right now I don’t feel anything at all. And it makes me a little tense,” she nervously drummed on the steering wheel with her fingers while her gaze wandered through the ruins of Arcadia Bay. “I, sort of, understand that this apathy is due to emotional overload or some other psychological shit, though...” Chloe paused for a moment, maneuvering on the road between the fallen tree and the pieces of the apartment building. “It does not save me from thinking like “Well, what an insensitive scum I am!” and etc.”

 

“Wow. I don’t even know what to say, Chloe…”

 

“Yeah.”

 

Looking out the window, I noticed the corpse of a young woman in a black coat, nailed to the ground by a fallen tree. One of the branches, especially thick one, pierced her back right through and plunged into the ground beneath her. It was this branch that did not allow the trunk to fall completely to the ground, keeping it slightly elevated.

 

I frowned, pretending that my head hurts. Then raised my right arm and began to rub the bridge of my nose, with my elbow blocking Chloe's view of Mrs. Wooden Spine.

 

“Hey, are you okay yourself?” Chloe sounded worried. Do not look at me, look away, do not look in this direction. “Is it the headache again?

 It's not because of your superpowers, is it?”

 

“I... everything is fine,” excellent, the corpse is out of sight. I hope that along the way we won’t find such **deadly merry** surprises anymore. “And I have not rewound since yesterday. I'm not even sure that it still works.”

 

“Do not check!” Chloe said sharply before I could raise my hand. I stared at her. She looked worried, her eyes widened, but still aimed at the road. “You know, the chaos theory and all the shit related to it. Who knows what will happen if you once again make changes to order-and-effect chains? But it’s unlikely to have a good impact on the space-time continuum, so even one use can lead to another catastrophe, right?”

 

And why do you ask me for confirmation in things that I do not understand at all? Dear Dog, Chloe, sometimes I forget what kind of a nerd you are. How did you even manage to get expelled from Blackwell with such a baggage of knowledge? Oh, you're still waiting for me to answer. I thought and nodded slowly.

 

“So don’t. I don’t think we need another fucking tornado, you agree, girlfriend?”

 

He-he, girlfriend…

 

You know, Chloe, your T-shirt just leaned forward, which opened a nice view for me. And then you leaned back in your chair and all was lost. I would not mind rewinding just to re-enjoy the moment... For six or seven times. So what arguments did you have against the use of my power?

 

Anyway, now’s not the time for joking.

 

But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want to have a look once more. Okay, Max, you, once again, started thinking about some nonsense (stop, the opportunity to look at Chloe’s... it’s not nonsense! (or is it, in comparison with… (I’m confused))) and keep quiet while an answer is awaited from you.

 

“I… fine, I won’t,” I answered after a moment's pause.

 

Chloe nodded and concentrated again on the difficult stretch of the road.

 

A few minutes later we were already passing by the sign that said “Another Great Day in ARCADIA BAY thank you – come again”.

 

Heh, I hope that we won’t have to.

 

We left town.


End file.
